Top Chest Exercises for Beginners

What is the most attractive male body part on women’s opinion? Well, some of them will choose big arms, but many of them will go for chest. Well build, big chest is something we all dream about, but not everybody has it. So if you want to be the guy from the magazine covers, there are some top chest exercises that should always be in your chest routine, especially for beginners.

Well defined and muscular chest can be one of the main advantages when trying to impress the ladies, or make your male rivals envy. No matter what is your goal, either to compete or just to impress somebody, the training part is the same.
When it comes to exercise, there’s no secrets how to build the perfect chest but only with hard work and consistency. If genetics are on your side then you are a lucky guy, but that doesn’t mean you can rely only on that.

All chest exercises can be divided in two types: presses and flys

Presses
Press moves are the ones when the weight is being pushed from the chest , using chest muscles, but also shoulders and triceps.

Flys
Fly moves are the ones when hands are spread and moving towards the center of the chest , hug movements as well.

Chest exercises are the same for beginners as for advanced athletes but beginners should base their workouts mostly on free weights. I consider this exercises as a MUST DO when planning to add some mass. And if you train good and eat good your chest will have no other choice but to grow.

Flat Bench Press

It’s one of the most popular bodybuilding exercises ever. Everybody knows about bench press, even the people who actually don’t work out. When someone asks you how much can you lift, he’s probably thinking about bench press. It’s really most common but also the best chest building move, either for beginners or advanced athletes.
Barbell bench press is a real muscle building move and 90% of bodybuilders start their chest workout routine with this exercise.

Although it’s a chest exercise, the front shoulder muscles and triceps get involved too, but we are looking to reduce that as more as possible. So it’s important to:

• Keep your chest up: when you bench press make sure you’re feeling the pecs muscles so it’s important to keep your chest up, and if not so, your shoulders will take over and do the work.

• Keep your elbows out: we want to keep them out to make sure that our triceps doesn’t get involve too much. If we move the arms close to the body, it becomes a triceps workout.

• Lock your feet to the floor: you have more power and stability when your feet are locked on the floor.

• Control the weight during the movement, don’t bounce the bar from your chest and make sure you squeeze the muscles on the way up.

• Moving the bar to your neck stimulates upper portions of the chest and moving it down to the stomach activates lower portions of the chest muscle.

Barbell bench press is a complex move and beside chest, shoulders and triceps, there are also all the supporting muscles groups involved in the exercise. That’s why it’s the best chest building move.

It’s OK to go heavy on bench press, but the most important thing here is to keep the right form, remember – QUALITY over QUANTITY.

Dumbbell Flat Bench Press

It’s a similar move, but here you can’t go as heavy as you would with barbell. Here is the advantage of greater way of motion. You can go somewhat lower when stretching the muscles when lowering the weight, and going all the way up when contracting the muscle until the dumbbells touch each other. Really great and useful exercise to perform.

Incline Bench Press

It’s another common exercise in bodybuilding circles. The best exercise for upper chest area, also a muscle building move where you can go to your limits. Here is important to keep the right form of the move because in any other case you will feel burn in your shoulders as they would take over the exercise.
Like in flat bench press, here you can also use dumbbells. Again, the range of motion will be greater, but you can’t use as much weight as with a barbell.

Dumbbell Flys

Another great exercise. Arnold used it back then in the golden days , but it’s very common to see in today’s chest routines. Good things never change.
It’s an isolation exercise, and here you can really concentrate on muscle contraction, using the lighter weight. Great exercise to finish your workout with.
Beginners often have trouble to hit the chest when they start to work out. In this exercise you just can’t fail, so it’s a great exercise to learn how to stimulate chest .

Chest Dips

This exercise is great for your lower chest. Although triceps and shoulders also do the work, and it’s often used as a triceps exercise, you can easily choose what of the body parts will be stimulated the most. So if you lean forward, the chest will do most of the work, and if you stay straight during the move and keep your elbows close to your body – it becomes a triceps exercise. It seems easy when I write it, but in practice it’s little trickier to do, so it’s necessary to connect with your muscle and make sure you’re lifting your body with your chest.